Taxi driver pleads not guilty to sexual assault of woman

Peter Hardwick
Reporter
Peter started in 1976 as apprentice typesetter/comp and has 32 years with The Chronicle in three stints (in between working/holidays in UK/Europe, Brisbane and Melbourne). Entered editorial from comp room in 1996.

A FORMER Toowoomba taxi driver accused of sexually assaulting a 29-year-old woman passenger has pleaded not guilty to the charge.

Opening the case against James Edgar Bradley, 43, Crown prosecutor Kathleen Millican said the young single mother was a regular customer with a pre-arranged pick-up time and had been driven to work by the defendant on a number of occasions.

A cleaner, the woman started work early in the morning and had allegedly been driven to her Toowoomba workplace that morning by the defendant and arrived about 4am.

However, when she went to pay the fare by credit card, the card had been rejected a number of times.

It was then the Crown claimed Bradley had put his hand under her pants in her groin area, Ms Millican said.

The complainant claimed she pulled away then leant forward to retrieve her card from the card machine when Bradley allegedly placed his hand on the back of her neck, pushed her head down and asked for oral sex.

Ms Millican said the woman said "no" and claimed the defendant had then tried to kiss her on the lips.

She got out of the taxi and went to work upset, later that morning calling a friend and telling her of the alleged incidents of that morning.

Ms Millican told the Toowoomba District Court jury that the woman had received 12 calls and 16 text messages from the defendant in a two-hour period later that morning which the Crown suggested was consistent with something having happened.

The Crown case was that by the complainant woman's protests of "no" and by her body language inside the taxi the defendant in no way could have thought she was consenting, she said.